The following hand series is a collaborative project I did with students (kindergarten, first, and second graders) in an after school program at Alderson Elementary about 2 years ago. Most of the meaning is implied or connotative, since the lives of these children are complex and multifaceted. I instructed the children to select their favorite color of marker and to trace their hand on the canvas. I told them that some of the hands will overlap one another. These overlapping lines and layered elements relate to the idea that we are all interconnected. We should hold hands and unite together in the world. Hands should not be for abuse or violence. Hands should be used for being proud of your identity (your fingerprints and DNA), for love, for making art, for raising high when we need assistance from a teacher and must be patient, for raising higher when advocating for a better democracy, a better tomorrow.
As some of them traced their hands, I gave them freedom to draw some energetic marks and stars, but I had to ensure that everyone had a chance to participate. Several also drew in nails. I had never considered that nails would be so important for them to add. For the girls, they drew their nails as nails painted and done at a salon; while for the boys, they drew their nails as claws, perhaps like Black Panther. One girl, also named Sarah, wrote her name 3 times.
After they all traced their hand, I filled them with iconic and symbolic semiotics that I see them often use in their artwork. These semiotics include rainbows, hearts, smiley faces, houses, sunny skies, and far away places. I tried to make each hand unique, as I see all my students as unique individuals. I used free-flow drawing like a cartoonist would without looking at any photos online. For the background, I added several small dots and lines of blacks and greys to make it look like static.
This visual narrative inquiry includes the mark making from my students and how I try to retell or “restory” their feelings and lives through art. In a way, this work is a visual conversation between my students and myself. Through this collaboration, I hoped to implement the suggestions from the book, Narrative Inquiry: Experience and Story in Qualitative Research (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) about using data from field notes, interviews, storytelling, and biographical information. When I showed them the progress I have made, most of them said positive remarks and wanted to view them for a long time. When asked if they would want to do more collaborative projects, most said yes. In future collaborations, I will give more freedom to the students to draw inside the hand that they individually traced.
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